James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

CG Art

Contact

or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

Permissions

All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

I just finished reading Jim Henson: The Biography. The book tells the story of Henson's lasting influence as creator and performer of the Muppets.

Biographer Brian Jay Jones interviewed the Henson family and his creative colleagues, and carefully went through the archives to create a very carefully researched and readable account of his short life (he died in 1990 of a lung infection at age 53.) Henson's kind, generous, restless, and inventive spirit, as well as some of his human foibles, come shining through the book.

ROTM, no, I regret I never met Jim Henson. I met some of the guys from the LA and London creature shops, and toured the shop in London, which was very impressive. They also made the animatronic young dino named "26" for the Dinotopia TV series, and I got to hold that radio controlled puppet.

I had the honor of working on a project with Jim Henson in 1985 called The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, a TV special. I designed the characters for the show (which were later "muppetized" a bit). One of my fondest memories was meeting Jim Henson in London to talk over my designs. He was so gracious, and gentle in his criticism. He had a gift of letting you know things weren't quite right yet without making you feel bad about it. I was so shocked the day I heard he had passed on. The world lost a truly generous and gifted soul that day.

The book mentions Bunny Picnic, and says the same you did about his working style...Oddly I just finished the audio book yesterday before this post...and now all the youtube links have really made it come alive...the one with Hall is well described at the end...I wont spoil it but I looked hard to see if I could match up what the book describes with what is shown,,,,so sad he passed on so early...

Didn't know Henson did Labyrinth. That was on my radar back then because I was fan of David Bowie who was in the film. Don't think you could quantify the enormous influence Henson had on our culture. Just the Muppets alone were (and probably still are) in every household in America, I'm sure.